A renaissance already has begun in the Shaw, LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale neighborhoods,which surround the Howard.
Walk a few blocks in any direction and you'll find several restaurants and bars, many of them opened in the past few years.

The most crave-worthy sweets in Washington are refined closers to memorable meals and whimsical revivals of childhood treats. And sometimes, they're simpler pleasures, the kind that arrive in paper cups.

If you need to entertain a client or just want to give yourself a treat, here are 11 fine dining restaurants offering weekday fixed-price specials. Lunch hours are from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Let's just get this out of the way at the beginning: Grilled cheese isn't the kind of delicacy that requires the sure hand of a trained chef. But should you choose to indulge outside the home, we'll steer you toward these great examples of the childhood favorite.

Juice bars are sprouting up across the region, and we stopped at several to sample the trend: Nearly all press their juices fresh, eschew added sugar and pasteurization, and recommend customers drink up within a day or two.
Many also offer a pretty pie-in-the-sky accounting of the health benefits of carrots, wheatgrass and coconut water.
We're not sold on the life-altering claims, but we can get behind any way to consume more veggies.

Grabbing a post-drink meal or midnight snack once meant heading to a diner or big-slice joint. Today, a growing number of Washington-area eateries are keeping the fires burning till the wee hours; suddenly, midnight is prime time for crepes, Korean fried chicken, kimchi hotdogs, Philly-style hoagies and good-old fashioned pie.

Although we don't have a homegrown style, we do have a stable of great chefs and pizzaiolos riffing on classic styles in restaurants and bars that fit any mood. Whether you're looking for pizza and a great beer, pizza with the game or just a place for pizza with the family, there's something in the area that's just right for you.

In town for the International Aids Conference? A hotel continental breakfast won't cut it for a long day at the Convention Center. Here are some cool places to find coffee and a hearty breakfast, or get in a working lunch during the day.

Hosting for Thanksgiving is a balancing act. You have to get the house in order, make sure that everyone's special diet is accommodated, remain gracious and pull off a picture-perfect feast. Spare yourself the extra anxiety by picking up dessert from one of these Washington-area bakeries or restaurants, listed in alphabetical order. Consider them your sweet reward.

Whether you're in search of meat-free dining or trying to find that Holy Grail of dining -- an eatery that turns out innovative dishes for meat-eaters and vegetarians alike -- these restaurants deliver.

It's high season for county and state fairs, and while you have to be in the suburbs for the rides, demolition derbies and pig races, you can find the culinary traditions of the fairgrounds at city restaurants. Here are a few places to get your fix of corn dogs, cotton candy and fried candy bars. Or, explore a real county fair

Unlike the dozens of reviews in my fall collection, whose topic varies from year to year, this season's batch of subjects is smaller and connected by a single question: How do 15 previously reviewed restaurants stack up today?

The old-fashioned, sit-down weekday breakfast may be hard to find, but it's not extinct. Writers for the Food and Weekend sections combed the region for fare so good, you'll want to put down your BlackBerry and savor the morning meal again.

We called on readers again to point us to their favorite dishes, this time with one major (dietary) restriction: We were going meat-free. An avalanche of vegan and vegetarian suggestions poured forth via e-mail, on Facebook and Twitter, and via the blog. It turns out, this is what we actually eat: Brownies. Thick, carb-loaded sandwiches. Pizza. Pho. Tacos. Deep-fried cheese. See these and dozens of other indulgences that drew readers' raves, below, and be sure to check out the photo gallery, with a photo of each dish. See our staff favorites here.